Pokémon Champions
A running log of what is changing in Pokémon Champions. Every update and announcement, newest first, with the live season and competition schedule, the current regulation, and what the game costs.
Latest Updates Live
Every Pokémon Champions update, season and announcement worth knowing about, newest first. This page is revised as news lands, so the top of this list is always the most recent thing to have happened. Last update: 4 August 2026.
Ranked Battles Season M-5 begins
Season M-5 runs from 4 August at 7:00 p.m. PDT to 8 September at 6:59 p.m. PDT, with the Season M-5 Battle Pass on the same window. The Champion Tier and Ranks 1 to 3 of the Master Ball Tier open a week into the season, on the evening of 11 August.
August 2026 events →20 million downloads worldwide
The Pokémon Company announced that Champions has passed 20 million cumulative downloads across Nintendo Switch and mobile, roughly a month after the mobile version launched. Cross-play between the two was called out as a reason the count climbed as quickly as it did.
Report →Regulation M-B Double Battles overview
The official breakdown of the current Double Battles regulation. M-B brought in the Legends: Z-A Mega Evolutions — Mega Floette, Mega Pyroar, Mega Staraptor and Mega Raichu X — and added Life Orb to the item pool. Incineroar lost U-turn and Knock Off from its moveset.
Regulation overview →2027 Championship Series season update
Play! Pokémon published what is changing for the 2027 season. The video game division continues on Champions.
Season changes →Mobile version out on iOS and Android
Champions launched on phones on 17 June, ten weeks after the Switch release, with cross-play between the two. The same day started Regulation Set M-B and a new Ranked Battles season and Battle Pass.
Official announcement →Our verdict on the launch state
Bill's Archive on what Champions gets right and what it shipped without — the Omni Ring, the 187-Pokémon roster, the HOME transfer restrictions, the monetisation tiers and the launch bugs.
Read the feature →Pokémon Champions launches on Switch and Switch 2
The franchise's first standalone competitive battling game released on 8 April, free to start, with an optional Starter Pack bundle. It replaces Scarlet and Violet as the platform for Play! Pokémon video game competition.
Official announcement →Play! Pokémon competitions move to Champions
Play! Pokémon confirmed the transition of official video game competition from Scarlet and Violet to Champions across April and May 2026.
Transition details →Champions dated for April
The first firm release window, given at a Pokémon Presents. The game had been announced a year earlier without a date.
Announcement →On Right Now
Worked out against your own clock. Champions seasons and competitions are announced in Pacific time; the exact PDT window is written out under each entry in the schedule below.
Live now
-
Ranked Battles Season M-5
Next up
-
Champion Tier and Master Ball Ranks 1–3 open
-
Monthly Challenge Series 08/2026 — entry
-
Monthly Challenge Series 08/2026 — battles
-
2026 Pokémon World Championships
Season & Competition Schedule
Ranked Battles seasons, the Monthly Challenge Series, and the Play! Pokémon events run on Champions, in date order.
| Entry | Type | When | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 release
Global launch, free to start.
|
Release | 8 Apr | Ended |
|
Indianapolis Regional Championships
First live Play! Pokémon video game event run on Champions.
|
Play! Pokémon | 29 May – 31 May | Ended |
|
Turin Special Championships
Europe's first major on the new platform.
|
Play! Pokémon | 6 Jun – 7 Jun | Ended |
|
North America International Championships
New Orleans. Watching the stream granted a Blastoise in Champions.
|
Play! Pokémon | 12 Jun – 14 Jun | Ended |
|
iOS and Android release
Cross-play with the Switch version. Regulation Set M-B started the same day.
|
Release | 17 Jun | Ended |
|
Ranked Battles Season M-5
4 August, 7:00 p.m. PDT to 8 September, 6:59 p.m. PDT. The Season M-5 Battle Pass runs on the same window.
|
Season | 4 Aug – 8 Sep | Live now |
|
Champion Tier and Master Ball Ranks 1–3 open
The top tiers of Season M-5 unlock one week into the season, on the evening of 11 August PDT.
|
Season | 11 Aug | in 2 days |
|
Monthly Challenge Series 08/2026 — entry
Sign-up window: 13 August, 7:00 p.m. PDT to 23 August, 6:59 p.m. PDT.
|
Monthly Challenge | 13 Aug – 23 Aug | in 4 days |
|
Monthly Challenge Series 08/2026 — battles
20 August, 7:00 p.m. PDT to 23 August, 6:59 p.m. PDT. Single Battle under Regulation M-B. Three or more battles earns an Alolan Raichu, 100 Quick Coupons and the MCS 08/2026 Challenger title.
|
Monthly Challenge | 20 Aug – 23 Aug | in 11 days |
|
2026 Pokémon World Championships
San Francisco. Competition at the Moscone Center, finals at the Chase Center. The first Worlds with the video game division played on Champions.
|
Worlds | 28 Aug – 30 Aug | in 19 days |
A Ranked Battles season and a Battle Pass run on the same window, roughly five weeks each. The Champion Tier and the top ranks of the Master Ball Tier do not open with the season — they unlock a week in, so the early days of a season are spent climbing to reach them. The Monthly Challenge Series has two windows of its own: a sign-up period that opens first, and a shorter battle period at the end of it.
Regulations
Champions rotates regulations the way Scarlet and Violet rotated its series. A regulation fixes which Pokémon, moves and held items are legal, and both Ranked Battles and the Monthly Challenge Series are played under the current one.
Regulation M-B is the format in force. It started on 17 June 2026, the same day the mobile version launched, and it is what the August Monthly Challenge Series is played under. It brought in the Mega Evolutions from Pokémon Legends: Z-A — Mega Floette, Mega Pyroar, Mega Staraptor and Mega Raichu X — and added Life Orb to the item pool. Incineroar lost U-turn and Knock Off in the same update.
The Omni Ring and Mega Evolution
The Omni Ring is the item a Trainer wears in Champions, and it fills the role a Key Stone fills in the main series. At launch it does one job: it lets a Pokémon holding the matching Mega Stone Mega Evolve. Mega Evolution is the battle gimmick Champions shipped with, which is why the strategy coverage on the official site is built around Mega teams.
Three new Mega Evolutions arrived with the game, all of them Johto starters carried over from Pokémon Legends: Z-A — Mega Meganium, Mega Emboar and Mega Feraligatr. Regulation M-B added four more from the same game.
Roster and Pokémon HOME
Champions launched with 187 Pokémon rather than the full Dex, a deliberate decision to keep the entry point small. More arrive in batches with each regulation.
You can bring Pokémon in from Pokémon HOME or recruit them inside Champions itself. Transfers are restricted: only species already coded into the game can come across, moves that are not legal in Champions are overwritten, and training done in Champions does not carry back to HOME. Pokémon generated inside Champions stay there.
For the storage app on the other end of that pipe, see the Pokémon HOME page.
What It Costs
Champions is free to start on all four platforms. The optional spending sits around the edges of it.
| Base game | Free to start. Ranked and Casual Battles, and the in-game means of recruiting Pokémon, are included. |
| Starter Pack | A one-off bundle sold alongside the free download. |
| Battle Pass | One per season. Levels rise with Season Points earned in Ranked Battles and competitions; a Premium Battle Pass adds rewards at each level. |
| In-game items | Sold individually, including storage and convenience items. |
Our launch feature goes through the tiers and their prices as they stood in April, and what the community made of them.
About the Game
Pokémon Champions is the first Pokémon game built solely for competitive battling. There is no region to travel and nothing to catch in the wild — the game is team building and battles, using the same types, Abilities and moves as the main series. It replaced Scarlet and Violet as the platform for official Play! Pokémon video game competition during 2026.
| Released | 8 April 2026 on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2; 17 June 2026 on iOS and Android |
| Price | Free to start, with optional purchases |
| Cross-play | Yes, between Switch and mobile |
| Developer | The Pokémon Works, with The Pokémon Company and GAME FREAK |
| Downloads | Over 20 million worldwide, announced August 2026 |
The 2026 World Championships in San Francisco, 28 to 30 August, are the first Worlds with the video game division played on Champions. Past results and locations are on the World Championships page.